Needsdecaf

TLDR: I bought a 997.2 Turbo S this past weekend. And I'm thrilled with it.

So I've been lurking / searching / posting on the 997 TT forum for some time now. A little over a year ago, I posted this thread asking if I should buy a 2012 997 Turbo. I had just driven a pretty nice 2012 Turbo and was wondering if I should swap my 2013 C2S Cab for this car. It ended up not working out, which is honestly for the better. But the question is, why had I driven it and why was I posting the question?

As I explained in the thread, the 2013 Cab was my first 911. If you really want to take a deep dive, that entire story can be found here. After a lifetime of lusting after 911's and being a huge fan of Porsche in general, I expected to fall madly in love with the car. After all, I had driven 993's, 997's, 991.1's, 991.2's, coupes, cabs, manuals, PDK's and decided THIS WAS THE CAR and THIS WAS THE SPEC that I wanted. Well, as I quickly discovered, there are more flavors of Porsche than Baskin Robbins. And you know when you go to the ice cream shop and you get a taster of flavor you haven't had before and you're like "yum, this is good" and you get a cone and by the time you're done with the cone you end up throwing away about 25% of it because you no longer like that flavor? Yeah, well that's the way it was with my 991.

Don't get me wrong, it was a wonderful car. I really enjoyed having a cab for the first time in nearly 20 years, and having a manual again as well. I loved the "Porscheness" of it and the thrill that a 911 brings. But as a sports car? The early 991's didn't end up doing it for me. Steering is very wooden and dull, the chassis isn't all that composed, the clutch is on the heavy side and the galactically long gearing meant it was frustrating to try to extract any performance out of the car on a normal basis. The only time I really felt that the car came into it's own was on the Tail of the Dragon, where I could run the car in 2nd and 3rd gear. The 991.2's are much better in all regards, but it forces you to go turbo. Not that it's a bad thing. But once you're into a turbo engine, as wonderful as it is, your mind starts to wander.....

....back to the first 911 I drove, a 997.2 C2S Manual. Gosh, I still thought about that car all these years later. It was a raggedy thing, clearly driven hard and put away wet. But that made it fun to cane on without a care and I thought, "oh, this is the business" at the time. I veered out of the 997 lane when I bought the 991 because 997 Cab was just too small for the kids in the back. Plus, I typically am of the mindset of "shiny new thing is best". So while I don't regret buying that car in the least, I will say that probably 18 months into owning it, I started to think about replacing it. I'm not one of these guys that flips cars around like people change their socks. There are a lot of reasons why, not the least of which is testing my wife's patience. So I started looking but didn't really get serious for a while. What really sealed the deal were two things. One I picked up some kind of injury to my left ankle which is still plaguing me. Clutching the car for 30 minutes or so would bring about tremendous pain which would last for days, even weeks. I still wear a brace every day to keep it from coming back. So I was driving the car a lot, less. The second thing is that my son, who is 5'7", simply got to big to ride in the back behind my wife who is 5'10". After that, the hunt for a replacement became more serious.

We quickly learned that an air cooled car was out. We tried to sit in it 4 up and just did not fit at all. Plus, even driving solo, I don't fit all that well in the driver's seat. I drove several 997 GTS's, later 991.1 GTS's ('15 and '16), several 997 turbos (.1 and .2's) as well as 991.2 C2S, GTS and Carrera T's. I even drove a 997 GT3 after seeing one locally come and go very quickly that had rear seats retrofit in it. A clear pattern started to emerge. The 997 Turbos and the 991.2 Carrera T were the clear standouts of the bunch. All those NA cars and I chose the turbos as my leaders? Yes, yes I did. The 997 GT3 was just too raw for what I wanted, which was a car to be enjoyed doing many things, by myself or the whole family. The 997 GTS is nice, but lacks the punch I wanted. The 991.1 GTS is good, but too close to what I had. Same interior (a bit too GT-like). Similar power delivery. The gearing of the PDK was a bit better than the manual, but not much. The 991.2 Carrera T...that car tugs strong at my heartstrings. I love the ethos behind it. And I love the extra "special sauce" Porsche has baked into the chassis. The thing that I have learned after owning several Porsches and driving many more is that Porsche is very much an "improve as they go" and there are many subtle changes that occur during the progression of a particular model's lifespan. Also, when they do a special performance addition, they really do make an effort to differentiate it. I'm not sure what all the wizardry is in the mix that separates a Carrera T from a base Carrera, but it works. And I'm not talking about the BS "lightweighting" items like the gorilla glass window and fabric seat pulls. I'm talking about suspension and steering kinematics changes. The difference is notable. But the Carrera T to me is slightly overvalued, and also it's too much of the same of what I came from.

So after months of drives and soul searching, I decided that a 997 Turbo was it. You can see that 6 months after posting that thread, in January of this year I bumped it as I got more serious. And then again in May of this year, I bumped it again as I started zeroing in on what I wanted. In March of this year I sold my 991 so as to be ready to pounce when the opportunity came to buy a 997 Turbo. But as you know, there are many flavors. .1 vs. .2. That prompted this thread about in early August. Stick vs. PDK. Coupe vs. Cab. I drove a very smart 2008 cab with a stick and almost got swayed by it. But I kept coming back to several things: one, the cab rear seat doesn't work for us, period. 2. I pined for a manual, but feared for my left ankle flaring up again. And 3. I have no stomach for coolant line or cam pinning repairs. That would be completely unacceptable to the wife to explain the brand new $75k plus car I just bought needed to have the engine dropped and $5k plus worth of work done. I know, maybe I'm whipped, but happy wife happy life and all of that. So I zeroed back in on a .2 PDK coupe.

I searched daily, everywhere. Rennlist. Auto Tempest. PCar Market. BAT. And several dealers who sell these regularly like Holt Motorsports, Ryan Friedman, Top Gear Motors, and Grand Prix motors. I monitored this stuff multiple times a day. Sometimes way too often. It's a wonder I got any work done. I tracked interesting cars that I thought were overpriced, to see if the price came down. I drove one locally that was a SUPER loaded 2012 TTS. Every carbon pack you can think of, sport seats, aerokit, etc. It had a $186k price tag. I went to see it and it disappointed. It had 40k miles and it showed. Fabspeed exhaust that droned like crap. Scruffy looking and not well loved. It was priced right, it eventually sold and the last listing was about $83k. But it just didn't feel right. The closest I got was this white 2012 S listed on Rennlist in early August. I texted the seller within hours of the ad being posted but he already had a deposit. No wonder, that car was beautiful, and a pretty cool spec with the red touches and the Alcantara seat centers. When that one slipped through, I knew I had to be ready to pull the trigger.

And I was. Not two weeks later, THIS CAR got posted in the Rennlist classifieds. @JoeFromPA helpfully texted me the link the morning after it was posted, but I had already reached out to the seller, lol. The seller got back to me that day. I will admit, Meteor Gray was decidedly not on my radar, but the combo of the Meteor, the centerlock Spyder wheels, yellow PCCB's and the Sea Blue interior was super handsome in my eyes. It's not about the individual pieces, its about the combo and to me, this one looked fantastic. Moreover, it was in Houston! Here I am looking literally all over the country, and this car pops up under my nose. Great spec, seemingly great condition, and local? I had to check this car out. I made arrangements with the seller to meet that weekend. I have to say that @BUstang is a true stand up guy. He's clearly an enthusiast and a discerning owner, and took great pride in the car; justifiably so. He understood where I was coming from as a buyer and kindly showed up at my house so I could show the car to the family as well. This was important, as it sold my wife on the car. As much as she enjoyed the 991, especially being a cab, she could see that this particular 997 Turbo S was a much nicer car to be in. Without asking, he invited us to take the car around the neighborhood, wife and kids, while he stood in my driveway! And then he and I went on a little bit more of a loop. The car was everything he advertised and more. This was the third TTS I've driven and by far the lowest mileage one. I took these pics that day of the car in my driveway:







I told the seller it was over what I had wanted to spend, but that the price was fair and I needed to think about it. I really did wrestle with spending this much money during a pandemic / economic downturn but reasoned the car was so nice and the spec was rare enough that if god forbid anything happened, it would be an easy sell. But on the flip side, clearly cars like this do not come along every day. Especially not local with a seller who isn't playing games. So on Monday I called him and pulled the trigger. We made arrangements and I picked up the car this weekend.

I am so excited to have a 911 back in my life. Moreover, I am fairly certain that unlike my 991, as nice as it was, this one will truly get under my skin. It already has. I find myself walking out to the garage just to open up the door and check it out. On Saturday I didn't get to do much in the way of fun driving in it. But on Sunday morning, the wife and kids went to the grocery store. I put the dog to bed and grabbed the keys and headed for my local test loop. Those of you who live or have lived in Houston know there are not many "enthusiast" roads around. Mostly you have to head an hour or more out of town to find anything exciting. But there are a few back country roads with tight corners that can at least give you a chance to open up the car and throw it around a bit. I headed for one loop close to my house where there are 2-3 sections of road like this. I've taken the 991 through there many times.

This was different. The first time I gave the car full wack from a stop (no launch control, just flooring it), I ended up giggling wildly. My daily driver is a Model 3 Performance so 3 second 0-60 times and just dominating passing power under 80 MPH are no stranger. But while that car is fun in it's own way (and really, it is), this car is just MORE fun. For many reasons, it just brings a much bigger smile. It's raw, engaging, feels decidedly old school. Most importantly it was exactly what I was after in a 911. I drove it two more times on Sunday, and my wife drove it as well (she is 20 years out of practice with a stick and the most she ever did with my 991 was drive it cautiously around the neighborhood). She playfully warned me she might steal it to go to work in and I said "go ahead, just watch the ramps in the parking garage; this doesn't have clearance like your Cayenne does". I'm smitten, and so happy with my purchase. It's exactly where I wanted to be.

I want to thank those of you who have helped me out through texts, DM's, etc. @daveo4porsche and @JoeFromPA were my most frequent sounding boards, as well as @bschurr, @Jeff Jones @TBarrow @Cnair and others not on Rennlist. Heck, even @stout was kind enough to share his time to give me thoughts on 991 vs. 997, etc. What a class act. I think it's that kind of camaraderie that exists within the Porsche community that returns me to the brand. I'm lucky to have a very strong and active local PCA chapter and can't wait to go meet some of those guys in person to share my new acquisition.

Of course, I have already ordered my first "mod", clear side markers! That and a Rennline phone mount will be here this week. I'm already mentally spending the money on a DSC controller and doing the man maths on when I can splash out on a Europipe. It's a slippery slope but it's all part of the fun of enjoyment. I have a feeling I will have this car a while.

Cheers!


P.S. Yes, I need to re-stain the garage door!

Big Swole

Congrats man!!!!


Now, I'll read the thread now...lol.


PS.... DSC and Europipe are a MUST for this car!!


PSS: if you're interested in a Black set of the RS Spyder wheels w/ BRAND NEW PS4S's mounted...I have a set for sale.



https://rennlist.com/forums/market/1209846




.

Jeff Jones

A fun journey to take to arrive at a spectacular car! I love the color combination as a complete package and haven't seen many like that. I was searching for only black interiors but ended up "compromising" on a two tone black/stone gray which is now one of my favorite aspects of the car. Sometimes the non-black interiors don't photograph as well as they look in person but spending time in that beautiful blue will be awesome.

Congratulations on finding the next one and enjoy the hell out of it.

JoeFromPA

Sooo excited for you - and man did you find a fantastic buy. Local too.

Enjoy in good health, and try not to explore the limits of your downforce

Cnair

Congrats! What an awesome buy! enjoy in good health! Is the car stock?

BUstang

Very happy for you sir! It was great meeting you and your family. I'm glad the car is staying in the Porsche community with a fellow enthusiast. Make sure you get that radar detector installed asap. The acceleration in Sport Plus at 60-120 is insane for a stock car.

I agree with the comment above concerning DSC and europipe or sharkwerks. I think those two mods make the car absolutely perfect!

golfinz

Congrats Joe!

Needsdecaf

Thank you sir! I think on this car, silver wheels are the best look. My first preference is usually some version of anthracite gray, but on this car, I think the silver is perfect.

Thanks Jeff, and thanks for all your help and input over the last few months!

There's a reason you haven't seen many like it. According to @TBarrow this was the only 2011 Turbo produced in this color combo, and the ONLY 997 Turbo S in this color combo, ever.

Haha, I'll try to keep the shiny side up! Thanks again!

Thanks! Yes, it is bone stock. I will do some subtle mods to it, starting as I said with the side reflectors. But nothing too crazy or irreversible. The car is CPO so there's that aspect, but mostly it's just so clean. I'm not even sure that when I tint it, I want to make it dark tint. I love being able to see through the windows on this car. Looks so classic.

Thank you again! Was great to meet you as well and mostly, thank you for selling your car! I'll definitely be grabbing the V1 for longer drives in this thing. You're right, the right pedal is addicting!

Thanks man!

Cnair

Mine was CPO but already modded with Shark werks bypass. I swapped that for Europipe and I also did the TPC DSC module...huge difference! I also did Cobb Stage 2 custom tune though

bschurr

Congrats & glad you found “the one”.
Stay well & healthy and enjoy your well deserved new toy!

shake1

Congrats and appreciate you sharing the background & story. That is certainly a very nice unique spec, and quite the upgrade. Nice find!

Metaphysician

Congrats! I saw the listing for this car and noted how nice the color combo was. Meteor Grey was actually my first choice (Platinum or GT Silver my second). It really shows off the lines and is a classic and understated option. Sea blue is a great interior color, especially paired with Meteor, and is a nice change from ubiquitous black.

I recommend upgrading the exhaust first - night and day difference in sound, performance, and throttle response. DSC is also great, but I only really appreciate it when I'm pushing the car hard. Whereas with upgrading the exhaust, I enjoy it every single time I drive.

sfbanchs

great write up and yes the TT checks all the boxes especially the happy family happy wife happy life. lucky or unlucky for me i am 5 8 wife is 5 3 and we have a 7 year old so we all fit in the 993 nice and snug haha, but of course the 997 is more roomy. enjoy in good health

lflouie

if I terested

lflouie

if interested a friend has a DSC from a 997.2tts with very little use for sale. Just Pm me.